Author(s)

Fábio Alexandre Leal dos Santos^1,2, Sirlei Frank Thies¹, Aldimara Vaillant Gonçalves², Klaucia Rodrigues Vasconcelos², Monaly da Silva Ribeiro², Junio de Souza Damasceno^3,4, Elisangela Santana de Oliveira Dantas^1,2, Diniz Pereira Leite Júnior^1,2,5

¹Medical Entomology Laboratory, Faculty of Medicine, Federal University of Mato Grosso, UFMT, Cuiabá, Brazil.
²University Center of Várzea Grande (UNIVAG), Cristo Rei, Várzea Grande, Brazil.
³Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais, Postgraduate Program in Vertebrate Biology, Conservation Genetics Laboratory, Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
⁴University Center of Belo Horizonte, Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET), Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
⁵Laboratory of Investigation, Faculty of Medicine, Federal University of Mato Grosso, UFMT, Cuiabá, Brazil.

Water mites (Hydrachnidia) are common external parasites of the medically important mosquitoes (Culicidae). Between April 2014 and April 2015, 64 mites from three genus, Arrenurus 71.9%, Limnochares 3.1%, and Hydrachna 25.0%, were collected from female mosquitoes in two rural locations near Cuiabá, Mato Grosso, Brazil. Dipterous species parasitized by water mites belonging to seven species: Anopheles (Nys.) darling, An. evansae, Aedes (Och.) scapularis, Ae. serratus, Mansonia (Man.) wilsoni, Psorophora (Jan.) ferox, Ps. varipes. The most common specimens to accommodate the water mites were Anopheles (Nys.) darlingi and Psorophora (Jan.) varipes. The prevalence of parasitism of mosquitoes by water mites found in this study was less than 5. However, few studies have addressed the ecological role of mites and their biotopes, as well as host-parasite interactions in Brazil.

Ectoparasitism, Hydracarina, Culicidae, Mites

Leal dos Santos, F. , Thies, S. , Gonçalves, A. , Vasconcelos, K. , Ribeiro, M. , Damasceno, J. , Oliveira Dantas, E. and Leite Júnior, D. (2016) Aquatic Phoretic Mites (Acari: Hydrachnidia) Associated with Ectoparasitism of Mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) in the Midwest Region of Brazil. Advances in Entomology, 4, 141-150. doi: 10.4236/ae.2016.43015.